May 4, 2012
Following da Vinci's Canal: Milan to Certosa
I woke up with a feeling of trepidation about cycling in Milan. We had to cycle through the city to get to the beginning of the bicycle path along the canal leading south. I had prepared a gps track through Milan using bikemap.net and the open cycle maps but I wasn't sure if we were really going to be on roads suitable for bikes.
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As it turned out, the route we had prepared through Milan was perfect. The route skirted streets with heavy and fast traffic, took us on bike lanes when they existed and to the beginning of the Naviglio, a navigable canal engineered by Leonardo da Vinci in the late 15th century. The Navigli of Milan are the artificial canals constructed between 1179 (Naviglio Grande) and the 16th century (Naviglio Martesana) with the purpose of making Milan accessible by water.
Along this historic canal is a bike path which leads to Pavia. It was a quiet road with no traffic, and although the scenery wasn't exciting it was pleasant riding. The air was cool for the beginning of May but the sun was strong. Janos had a bit of sunburn on his face in the evening.
We had stopped in Pavia many years ago on our first tour along the Po, but we had missed the Charterhouse of Pavia or Certosa di Pavia. It was a rainy day and we weren't interested in a 20 km detour to look at the monastery, even if it was a must-see attraction. On this trip we wanted to make sure we didn't miss the Certosa.
In the town of the same name, Certosa, we left the canal and rode to the monastery. We had to wait a while for it to open, and gradually the group of waiting visitors grew as busloads of school classes arrived. We weren't allowed to look at the monastery on our own but had to join the guided tour, consisting mainly of giggling teenagers, interested in each other but not the church. The tour was conducted in Italian which I tried to follow in the beginning - but soon gave up. I can never remember all that information, even if I do understand the language and find it all terribly interesting at the time.
We weren't allowed to take photos, who knows why. Then I noticed that no one was taking the restriction seriously, so I joined the crowd and snapped my shots when the monk guiding us wasn't looking my way. I don't think I did anyone any harm by taking pictures, even if it wasn't allowed.
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After visiting the monastery, we rode to our B&B that I had booked in advance. It was located about 4 km from the certosa in the hamlet of Samperone. In the evening we cycled back to Certosa and found a lovely restaurant/pizzeria and were happy to see that the prices were much more sane than what we had encountered in Milan.
Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 38 km (24 miles)
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